cocoon-dev mailing list archives

Antonio Gallardo wrote:
> I finally found it at:
>
> http://java.sun.com/products/jimi/
>
> It looks like jimi is an ancient jar. Why is still in use? For
> compatibility with old java 1.1.x or for historics reasons? ;P
Jimi was provided as a stop gap measure to prop up JDK 1.1
capabilities for handling a variety of graphics formats.
Jimi supports a *lot* of different formats (although no
match for netpbm), if someone bothers to write format
recognizers support could be added to FOP and the PDF serializer
easily.
Later, Sun developed JAI, a very general interface for
manipulating images. You can download JAI and Suns sample
implementation
http://java.sun.com/products/java-media/jai
and use it with the latest FOP and PDF serializer too
(see http://xml.apache.org/fop/graphics.html)
Pro Jimi:
- easy to install: just move the classes into the classpath
- pure Java, platform independent (available for Macs, that is)
- potentially supports a lot of image formats
- no fee
Contra Jimi:
- not all that fast
- not maintained
Pro JAI
- it's an interface, supply your own implementation if you want
- fast (Suns sample implementation uses native libraries)
- lots of features which can be interesting
Contra JAI
- possibly harder to install, may need special access rigths
(because of the native libraries)
- not necessarily available for all platforms (Suns impl
is not available for recent Macs, AFAIK)
- commercial implementations may cost real money
- no open source implementations worth to look at AFAIK
If someone wants to add this tio the Wiki...
J.Pietschmann